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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Prostitution Laws Improved in Canada

Two prostitution laws have been improved in Canada, and one other left the same. It's already legal to be a sex worker, but three associated laws prevented it from being legal to do SAFELY, by denying sex workers the same rights as other businesses.

"Living off the avails" is now gone as a crime, so a sex-worker's dependants, eg; children, elderly parents, spouse, whoever she's supporting, will no longer get penalized by a rule that was originally meant for pimps.

Also, running a bawdy house is no longer a crime, so sex workers will be able to rent or own some indoor space to work in. The old law against bawdy houses forced many women to work on the streets (which = pimps) instead of the much safer indoors work, which can be via incalls (having clients visit your home or office) or outcalls (visiting client's homes or hotels).

It looks like they are still keeping the laws regarding no communicating for the purpose of prostitution. They say it's to keep street work down, but it sounds to me like it could also prevent all sex workers from being allowed the same advertising freedom that everyone else has, rather than anything to do with the streets. In fact, street vending laws alone should be sufficient to counter any illegal street work.

Another problem, is that when referring to prostitution, the word 'communicate' has been abused to mean almost anything. Did you just look that driver in the eye for a split second? You must have been communicating that you are a sex worker open for business. Stuff like that.

I agree that street work is not a good thing though. The reason I don't like it is because on the streets, criminal elements own outdoor territories. Street workers are made to give up much of their income to local thugs called pimps. However, indoor self-owned business workers do NOT have to put up with pimps. Also, ALL sidewalk businesses, no matter whether they are selling sunglasses or sexual services, should follow the by-laws on street vending. There is no need for the communication law, and in fact, many good reasons to get rid of it.

Here's a video by Divinity about the recent ruling. She is a sex worker's rights advocate and has many videos on the topic.

I think 'Communicating' was supposed to mean the body language of standing on a curb trying to beckon cars in the case of street prostitution. I've heard horror stories though. Not sure if it was in Canada or somewhere else with communicating laws, but non-working women were getting arrested for things such as daring to make eye contact with a passing stranger, flagging cabs, and similar things. Facial expressions, asking a stranger the time, looking at the cars that are going by. I don't know if that law is still being abused or not though. It was a long time ago I read about it.

More recently, women carrying condoms in their purses has been considered in the US somewhere to be proof that she is a prostitute. This makes real prostitutes hesitant to carry the protection that just might save their life. Makes their job more unsafe.